> If I were in her shoes, I would do the same, since no liberal think
> tanks were forthcoming with offers.
Why would a liberal think-tank want to hire someone who has made a career out of bashing Islam?
> PS. I believe she was scape-goated for the failed "pillarization" policies
> that backfired big time on the Dutch system, but the liberals who support
> these policies still do not know what hit them.
I think this is an oversimplification.
The zuilensysteem (the pillar system) evolved ages ago as way of allowing Catholics and Protestants to live along side each other in harmony; it gave them a measure of autonomy in their own affairs. The system worked fine for most of the 20th C. It didn't work so well when it was extended to encompass large numbers of Muslim immigrants from the impoverished hinterlands of Morocco and Turkey.
As I wrote privately to another lister earlier today, Hirsi Ali, a lapsed Muslim from Ethiopia who received asylum in Holland in 92, entered the fray several years ago with some highly inflammatory comments regarding the person of Mohamed and the alleged "backwardness" of Islam. Not surprisingly, she received death threats from radical Muslims. After the Theo van Gogh killing, she was placed under 24/7 police protection and had to live in hiding, which, not surprisingly, she resented.
Her position was further complicated by the recent revelation that she used a fictitious surname when she applied for asylum, the irony being she is a member of the liberal (in the euro sense) VVD party, the same party as the current minister of immigration and integration, who is notorious for her iron-fist, zero-tolerance, etc etc policies towards asylum seekers. The minister, Verdonk, even went so far as to suggest this week that Hirsi Ali may lose her Dutch citizenship because of the falsification. In the midst of the ensuing uproar, the AEI offer came through, providing her with an escape hatch.
Woj's comment, "the liberals who support these policies still do not know what hit them", is a harsh one but I suspect it is fundamentally true. At the same time, I don't see how Hirsi Ali contributed in a constructive way to the ongoing national debate here over immigration and integration. She seems to appeal primarily to the nativist contingent, like Mark Steyn (and apparently now our ex-comrade Hitch) who feel deeply threatened by Muslim culture in our midst.
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Colin Brace
Amsterdam